Aston Villa suffered a 2-1 defeat to Man City on Wednesday night, with John McGinn’s first-minute opener not enough to deny the Premier League title chasers.
Villa took the lead after just 21 seconds with a brilliant, swift attacking move carving Man City open, but the visitors found their rhythm soon after and turned things around before half-time.
READ MORE: Five key talking points as Villa come unstuck vs Man City after fast start
A red card for John Stones didn’t sway the game back in our favour as we lost Matty Cash to a dismissal too just before the hour mark, and so it’s another defeat for Dean Smith to assess and improve on, with a clash against West Bromwich Albion to look forward to next on Sunday night.
Villa player ratings vs Man City
Emiliano Martinez, 6 – Made some good saves throughout and couldn’t do much about City’s equaliser, but will be disappointed he wasn’t anywhere near the cross that led to what was ultimately their winner from Rodri.
Matty Cash, 4 – A night to forget for our right-back as although he’s been brilliant this season, two quick cautions saw him sent off just before the hour mark and that appeared to kill off our hopes of getting something from the game.
Ezri Konsa, 6.5 – Another stellar display from Konsa as he dealt with what he had to with minimal fuss and got his job done. Will be disappointed we leaked two goals and dropped points from a winning position at home for the first time this season.
Tyrone Mings, 6 – Excellent pass in the build-up to our goal and defended well for the most part. However, similarly to Martinez, he’ll take some of the blame for Rodri’s goal as he failed to deal with the delivery which evaded his head for a key clearance.
Matt Targett, 5 – A quiet night in terms of his efforts going forward and had a difficult assignment on that left flank as he was often double teamed with an overlapping run and certainly had his hands full defensively.
Douglas Luiz, 5 – Had his moments where he showed some quality, but it was few and far between from the Brazilian as he was also very sloppy with his distribution and wasn’t able to stamp his mark on the midfield battle.
Marvelous Nakamba, 5 – Did well at times to make interceptions and pressure City, but he struggled to sustain that and our midfield was overrun and outplayed for a large part of the encounter.
Bertrand Traore, 5 – Started brightly but that faded as the game went on and as the goals and assists dry up, he is starting to show more poor play than good which is surely a concern for Smith given the investment in him.
John McGinn, 6 – Great finish for his goal, showed a real class touch to get it past Ederson and into the back of the City net. Never stopped running and looked to press high up to put pressure on them, but they’re chasing the title for a reason and his efforts were in vain ultimately.
Jacob Ramsey, 5 – Came off at half-time but showed that there is promise there with a chance sent into the side-netting while he caused Stones to be sent off. However, long way to go if he is to prove to be a gem at this level.
Ollie Watkins, 6 – Another great shift from our frontman as he provided the assist for McGinn’s goal and worked tirelessly for the team thereafter with his effort in pressing and tracking the ball down. Continues to be left too isolated up top and didn’t really influence things after Davis came on to allow him to play off of a focal point instead.
Substitutes:
Keinan Davis, 5 – Put himself about and made a nuisance of himself but not enough to force a comeback.
Ross Barkley, 4 – Little to nothing of note after coming on just after the hour mark.
Anwar El Ghazi, N/A – Similarly to Barkley, but in less time, struggled to have any sort of influence on the game off the bench.
